The ramblings of a pilgrim through time, space, and life.

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Dupont Circle

Another amazing weekend has flown by. I would never have thought I would have as much fun as I would. Evan and Amber Fetters came from Lexington, Virginia for a visit. They are both graduates from USU and Evan and I became good friends there. He is currently enrolled in Washington and Lee Law. They wanted to come up to DC, hit the temple, and visit some friends. Evan and Amber planned to pick me up and then we would go to the temple. But since it was General Relief Society Meeting tonight the temple was closed. Oh well. We still wound our way through a congested Washington (due to a load of protests) to the BYU building at L Street. We found it, picked up Ambers friend, a Kristine Willie and made our way to eat at Raka just off Dupont Circle. Kristine is from Mendon, Utah and is indeed of handcart fame. (She works for Senator Reid too) I had some great szechuwan (sp?) beef and we all had some great laughts. We really enjoyed ourselves. Made our way back to BYU where Evan and I went to a Washington Nationals vs Ney York Mets game. We lost by a whole 3 points, but they scored all 5 of their points in the first inning, so the game was not very interesting. Amber and Kristine took the auto and were horribly lost finding the General Relief Society Game. I think they finally caught the last 30 minutes. Gavin Bruce met Evan and I at the baseball game. They talked about sports, something I know and care little. We made our way on the Metrorail back to BYU housing, said good night to Kristine, and found ourselves sleeping soundly at the Thompson Household in Springfield, Virginia.

We arose early to get ready for church. We rode the Metrorail to Friendship Heights, Maryland and attended the Washington 2nd Ward. It was a singles ward with probably 400 individuals present. It was packed. It is the Chevy Chase Chapel which looked like an old colonial building. I remember my old roommate Samuel Allred speaking about the Chevy Chase Ward. I was excited to be there. There were some cool people. Sacrament was not too terribly interesting. I got a couple of chapters read in my Book of Mormon. But afterwards before the ward separated, all guests were expected to introduce themselves basically at the end of Sacrament meeting. It was great though that afterwards all these Idaho people came up and visited with me. I met a Mary Pope from Rexburg who is nannying on Connecticut and Cherry Hunsaker who graduated from Minico High. I remembered her face but could not remember where I knew her from. I even doubled with her on a date in high school. I felt pretty bad for not remembering. It was 8 years ago though! They are both going to come up and take a Capitol tour. I hope they do come. It is always good to make new friends.

We made our way back to BYU after and ate a dinner with the rest of Kristine’s floor. We finally made our way back to Franconia-Springfield despite a whole mess of Metrorail construction. It took ages. So that was the weekend. A new ward, new people, new places. I loved Georgetown, it reminded me of England so much, definitely American though. It was nice to have a friend in Senator Reid’s office. I told her I wanted to take her to lunch to get a full scope of the office and what it is like in a Democrat’s office, and especially Reid’s.

Well, things are going better in the office. I think I was a bit negative about stuff. I do expect the Senator to be more personable to the whole staff and make himself more accessible, but however, I do enjoy where I am. I see him like once a week. I see Senator Dodd more than that. He even talks to me in the elevator. Some comment today about how the marble floors are nice, but they get harder the older he gets; or his feet are getting more sensitive. He was very friendly, more than some of the others I have visited with lately. I am always the perpetual analyst looking for ways to improve and sometimes that attitude causes me to be overly critical. I must always keep my judgement in tune with the spirit of charity and faith. That is not always easy to do.